mp3RadioGuy said:
...both the Omnia & 8500 are both damn fine sounding boxes. Most full time multiple station CE’s simple don’t have time to play “let’s piece together an audio processor”. Those days are gone.
It seems to me if you only tried the Omnia for “one day” and then thru it back in the box, you already had you mind made up before getting to know the box.
...from the days of that crappy old Optimod 8000.
mp3RadioGuy: I wasn’t expecting much of a choir after making that post--opinions on audio are like (‘ya know)--we all have one... Just have a few brews with a high-end audio dealer and you’ll agree. ;D ...But thanks for verifying a suspicion I’ve had for several years and decided not to make within this thread. In a way, Mike Walker made that supposition for me...
[Quoting Mike] “In truth many small town stations with dated analog processing, but modern digital source material have immensely cleaner audio than big time stations. Often the cleanest audio on the dial (though certainly not the loudest) comes from small college and university stations with neither the budget, nor the inclination to be the loudest thing on the dial.”
For several years I’ve been getting this sneaky sensation that audio quality on large-market FM has been deteriorating... I just dismissed it as my aged ears. Now you confirm my only other hunch by admitting that
“Most full time multiple station CE’s simply don’t have time to play ‘let’s piece together an audio processor’. Those days are gone”.
Since their programming seems to be in steady decline--why should I be surprised the fidelity is also! So this is all about
“convenience”? ‘Kinda like snatching up an “all in one box” single-brand home audio package on sale at MediaMart; as opposed to carefully choosing preferred speakers, CD, amp, and tuner--scratch that tuner--most folks don’t consider one anymore... Gosh, I wonder why that is?
We can agree that the age of component audio chains may be over--I see very few of the “separates” up for sale these days (but I see very few enthusiastic and savvy small-scale owners around also).
The Omnia and Orban procs are not bad products--they are made God-awful most times thru abuse. Mike Walker’s reference to exceptional small market and college stations with superior audio is true. Many of these stations use the aforementioned digital procs--many others can only afford the option of a budget BT Ultramod or clean used Optimod 8100. Their quality is due to reasonable use of the equipment.
I simply do not believe the two “one box wonders” we are discussing sound good when “cranked”--nor do I accept that a particular techie’s stealthy understanding of them can usurp the basic issue that
they have very limited control range--especially in the AGC section. Trekking beyond their infamous “sweet spot” leads to drastic and very sudden sonic distress, grunge, and garbage in the “back 40” of the composite baseband which aggravates reception problems on many radios. Make no mistake--I’m a “density fan”... I dislike “wimpy audio”--but I also dislike having to turn the volume down after five minutes... 'Guess it's called the “loudness vs quality tradeoff”--and older analog gear seems to more eloquently shift that balance toward robust sound with minimal payback.
The Omnia we boxed after a day headed for my office where it readied for the sign-on of a second FM. We concluded (albeit quickly)
it was not superior to a well-chosen and optimized analog chain assigned to handle the musical likes of “Ramblin Gamblin Man”, “Lola”, and “Bang a Gong”. The Omnia later returned to a female-oriented pop-alt-leaning hot AC. It was
preceded by an APHEX analog Compellor with a digital I/O option, fed over a digital STL into a Harris digital exciter--and
sounded fine on a station purposely processed in moderation.
mp3, we’ll overwhelmingly agree on two points: the need to preprocess a well-tamed digital “one-box”, and our affection for “that crappy old Optimod 8000”
ghattaway... I still have my Orban spring reverb... 'Turned down several offers over the years!
Our classic-oriented AOR FM air chain, circ 2000:
Audigram RTV-12 console > APHEX Compellor AGC > Texar Prisims
(later replaced with a tcElectronic Finalizer digital multiband compressor) > APHEX Dominator peak limiter > modified and “naked” Optimod 8100B (with only the H.F. limiters and stereo gen active) > Mosely 606C STL link > a “composite processor” made by “The Buzzard-FM” Cleveland CE Jim Somich > Harris THE-1 exciter and HT-7 rig
Now, save the demure 8kw transmitter, that combo would “Shake a Tail Feather” on oldies Majic 94.1 8)
